Ed Snyder began this blog in order to share his decade-long experience with all things cemeterial. As a photographer specializing in images of cemetery statuary, I've run into some interesting people, had some unexplainable experiences, and had a lot of fun.

Saturday, October 10, 2015

Active Shooter

This week’s Cemetery Traveler blog post has nothing
(directly) to do with cemeteries, but everything to do with death. A week
prior to me writing this (October 1, 2015), a crazed gunman opened fire on
students in a classroom at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. Nine
people were killed and then the gunman, Mr. Chris Harper-Mercer, killed himself.

A couple days later I’m freaked out when my kindergartner excitedly
tells me: "We're having an “Active Shooter" drill tomorrow!" She
proceeds to relate, in chilling detail, how they are to proceed during such an
event. “We are to go to the back of the room, be quiet, and lie down. Our
teacher will lock the door.”

I'm rattled enough from that and then today (October 6,
2015), the media alerts us to the fact that “A social media post over the
weekend threatens violence against a ... Philadelphia-area
college/university Monday afternoon" (Published by NBC Monday, Oct. 5, 2015). All
institutions of higher learning are placed on alert. I am employed full-time by
a Philadelphia university and I also work part-time at Community College of
Philadelphia, which is in center city near the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

About 11 a.m. on October 6, I received a cell phone message
from Community College of Philadelphia (CCP), where I was scheduled to teach that
evening. The college is on lock-down due to a gunman on campus. After several
more updates, I receive the message around 11:30 a.m. that "The suspect
has been apprehended." On television, this brings a big sigh of relief. However, the message did little to calm me down. Just what the fuck is going on in the world?

I received another message stating that classes for the
evening were cancelled. On one hand, I didn’t have to teach that night. On the
other hand, I began to think about when I was a kid, when the only time school was
cancelled was when you had a “Snow Day.” Now we’ve got “Shooter Day.” When I
drove home after work, I heard on the news that the reason why the college was
still on lock down was because police still hadn’t found the gun. Marvelous.

Here’s the message I found on CCP’s website when I got home:

“College’s Main Campus is closed effective immediately. The
West, Northwest and Northeast Regional Centers are open. Exit campus in a calm,
orderly fashion. Normal class schedules and business operations resume
Wednesday. Get updates at www.ccp.edu or @CCPedu.”

Community College of Philadelphia under happier circumstances

Turned out the situation at Community College of Philadelphia
was simply an act of RANDOM violence - an argument between two students; one supposedly had a gun. So it was unrelated to the “social media posting
which threatened violence at a Philadelphia-area college or university for
Monday, October 5” (ref.). We still have that to look forward to, then? On October 8, 2015, there was actually another shooting on a college campus - this time in Arizona (see link), where one student was killed. I mean, seriously, people, what the fuck is going on?

While the shootings in Oregon seemed to be related to religion (people who admitted they were Christian were shot in the head), the Community College of Philadelphia incident was essentially just an argument between two male students."These are two individuals who have a history," [Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey]
said. "They were arguing over something. At some point in time this
individual pulls a gun on the other — not uncommon in Philadelphia,
unfortunately." (Ref.)

Christopher Harper-Mercer, 26, killed himself after fatally shooting
nine people at Umpqua Community College in Oregon.
(The Guardian)

This alert published by NBCPhiladelphia.com: may just be the wave of the future, in which "Snow Days" are replaced by "Shooter Days" in our schools:

“Out of an abundance of caution, the FBI Philadelphia Field
Office notified local colleges and universities of a social media posting which
threatened violence at a Philadelphia-area college or university for Monday,
October 5,” the agency said in a statement.

“No specific college or university was identified in the
posting. We encourage students, faculty, and employees at area colleges and
universities to follow the guidance of their campus security officials. The FBI
will continue to work with our federal, state, and local law enforcement
partners to investigate threats of violence, and, as always, we ask the public
to report suspicious activity to law enforcement.”